Clean up your mesh! Part 1: plane and simplex

Abstract

Abstract We revisit the geometric foundations of mesh representation through the lens of plane-based geometric algebra (PGA), investigating its efficiency and expressiveness for discrete geometry. We find how k-simplices (vertices, edges, faces, …) and k-complexes (point clouds, line complexes, meshes,…) can be written compactly as joins of vertices and their sums, respectively. We show how a single formula for their k-magnitudes (amount, length, area,…) follows naturally from PGA's Euclidean and ideal norms. This idea is then extended to produce unified coordinate-free formulae for classical results, such as volume, centre of mass (c.o.m.) and moments of inertia for simplices and complexes of arbitrary dimensionality. Finally, we demonstrate the practical use of these ideas on some real-world examples. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modern applications of geometric algebra’.